Revenge
by goldduckies
Summary: The story of how the phoenix trained the butterfly. Follows Nikita right after she rescued Alex. Pre-pilot. Sequel to "The Silent Ambush."
1. Chapter 1

The heat crept slowly into her lungs with every breath she took. There was steam all around her and the lights were dark yet gleamed with a stronger intensity then usual. There was smoke all around her but this time, she didn't have noises to wake her up or her father to save her. Her eyes flashed open and she found herself on a mysterious wood floor.

She couldn't breathe any longer.

It was when Alexandra Udinov awoke in a portable sauna that she'd mistaken for another fire that she found herself face to face with a woman who looked strangely familiar.

To Nikita's knowledge, this was their 3rd introduction. The first time was during the fire, the second when she had grabbed Alex from the dealers the other day and the third one was now. It was the only one Alex would likely remember and Nikita preferred it that way.

Sauntering over with a distinct air of nonchalance, Nikita went over to the panicking girl to get a better look.

"Help! HELP!" Alex banged on the sauna's window until she bruised her wrist.

"Just relax Alex, breathe, in and out". She continued walking closer to the junkie—they were all like that at first she noted. Scared, angry and hungry for whatever drug had drawn them into their misery in the first place. She herself had been exactly like that.

"Let me out of here! Let me out!" She had started wiping the window both anxious to leave the sauna and take a good look at her kidnapper's face.

"I will, I promise. For now just breathe".

After a few deep breaths the girl quieted down and looked her over.

"Who are you?" The girl paused waiting for an answer but couldn't resist asking another question. "Where am I?"

"We're at my place. I'm a friend".

"Well if you were a friend then you'd let me out of this closet."

_The junkie negotiates her way out of the one thing that'll get her clean so she can go and get more of what landed her here in the first place. Smart. But, I've seen this too many times._

"It's not a closet… it's a portable sauna. I built it myself."

Nikita paused. _That was supposed to sound like an accomplishment rather, I sound slightly like a serial killer. Oops_.

"It's going to help you get clean."

_Yeah, like adding that in will make me sound less creepy._

Alex hit the glass. "Why are you doing this?"

Nikita rolled her eyes and regained her composure.

"Let's call it a gift."

"I know how to get clean okay? I know how to get clean I need to come down easy, okay?" Her voice grew weaker while her body was clearly running on a last resort.

"There is no easy way down" _And you don't know how to get clean. Hell, the fact that you just repeated your last sentence with an emphasis on 'okay' tells me you have absolutely no clue what you're doing._

"I don't need a sauna, I need a hit!" She banged on the glass again. Her hits had gotten weaker and she was loosing her strength fast. For good measure, Nikita had put in a weather resistant box, which held about 3 gallons worth of ice water.

_Hopefully, she'll notice it soon and I'll look less like I'm trying to kill her._

"It's very rude to question a gift, you know".

"Please… please…" The girl circled herself in the sauna looking for a way out. "I'm going to die in here".

"Look I know it hurts, okay? Your nose won't stop running. Stomach's cramping, you feel like your head's gonna fall off. Believe me, I know." She paused. She had to be truthful; this girl's whole life was a lie. "I only promise you one thing, it's going to get worse, before it gets better."

Alex grimaced in anger with a distinct flash of disappointment in her eyes.

Nikita began walking away and with that the girls feeling of abandonments were running back to her. She wiped the sauna door to see where she would go. She hated that woman's company and yet, it was all she had. She hated being alone. She had been alone her entire life. In a desperate hope that she would come back Alex banged on the glass harder and faster then she had before.

"No! No… no!" Come back… come… back. She felt sluggish. She looked around and saw a silver box and with that discovered the water. After rehydrating herself as much as she could, she closed the lid to the box and collapsed in a heap.

In the kitchen Nikita leaned back on the counter. It was hard seeing Alex so deep in trouble and acting so helpless. To her dismay, it brought back her darkest memories. She hadn't even been able to stay and explain the sauna to the girl. She had walked out of the room as fast as she could so the girl wouldn't see her cry.

"So this is what it's like on the other side of the looking glass," she muttered under her breath. For a brief minute, Nikita contemplated the prospect of running away from the girl and moving to a remote island where no one would find her. She shook her head and took a sip of her veggie shake.

_No… it's time I stop running. It's time I deal with my past and just stop ignoring everything that's happened. The more I run the easier it'll be for others to break me._

Ever since Daniel had died, Nikita had plunged herself into her plan to take down division. She hadn't once stopped to reflect on anything and ignored her feelings the whole time. Amanda had once let Nikita in on the way she exploited new recruits and she vividly remembered how it had worked on her as well. _"You look at what they avoid and what they're running from and use it against them. The recruits are always empty shells with problems. By talking about these problems and learning their secrets, you make it seem as though you're their confidant and their allegiance turns to you. It's simple, really. You fill the shell up and they become a bullet that you can use."_

It wouldn't work on her anymore. She would deal with her past and simultaneously help Alex deal with hers. She didn't need the girl's companionship or affection but she wanted to help her move on. She'd work with Alex and build her up piece by piece while she brought division down one mission at a time.


	2. Chapter 2

The woman was impeccably dressed; Alex wouldn't take that away from her. Nor would she take away how ridiculously suave and reserved she managed to be at all times. It was as though, Alex thought to herself, someone had reached down and taken all potential emotions away from her.

It was the thirteenth day that she had woken in the sauna. The woman would turn it on for short intervals a few times a day and keep it off the rest of the time. She hated to admit it to herself -let alone admit it to the woman- but she wasn't drowsy anymore. The symptoms she'd gotten used to when going through withdrawal had disappeared altogether. No more splitting headaches, nausea or throwing up out at a moments notice. For the first time in half a decade, she was clean.

The woman's technique had impressed Alex. Except for those meal substitutes the woman perpetually stocked in her room. She needed food and, healthy or not, those green and brown smoothies were disgusting. Then again, the orange colored drink wasn't too bad.

Her head suddenly felt faint, her cheeks suddenly felt too sweet and knees gave in. Within seconds, she passed out next to the futon-like seat, which had mysteriously been placed inside the hot room.

Hearing the thump upstairs, Nikita put her veggie shake down and ran upstairs to check on the girl. It has been thirteen days and the drugs were completely out of Alex's system. Perhaps, just perhaps, it was time for the girl to breathe fresh air again.

She walked past the portable sauna and grabbed one of the many chairs that bunched together to the right. Dragging it behind her, she leaned the high chair against the structure and climbed up.

Once on top of the sauna she crawled a bit to the left and opened the hatch and jumped down pulling the small ladder down with her. She picked the girl up with some difficulty. The girl may have been tiny but anything for her frame was a burden. For someone who was 100 pounds soaking wet anything past a baby was a pain to lift. Nikita took a step towards the ladder but the girl slid right from her arms. Improvising, she threw the girl onto her back and secured that her arms stayed in place with her chin. She finally got onto the roof and pushed Alex to the side taking a moment to breathe.

Mustering her strength she pulled the girl in bridal style and jumped quickly from the rooftop to the chair and down to the ground. She looked back onto the sauna on time to see the high chair collapse.

A few steps later, she laid the girl onto her bed. Making a mental note to herself to get out the bed she'd saved for Alex, she glanced over the girl again. She'd been letting the girl use her clothes up till now but she doubted an 18 year olds fashion sense would have anything in common with someone 10 years her senior.

She threw her head back and stretched for a bit. Checking her watch and comparing the time frame to the last time Alex had passed out, Nikita figured she had well over an hour before the kid would wake.

Taking a quick trip to the second story, Nikita grabbed a bowl from the kitchen Whitfield's wife had redesigned for her. She opened the mini fridge and took out the container, which held yesterday's dinner. With the salad and the fork in one hand, Nikita grabbed her keys and went upstairs. Placing the food next to the girl she checked her watch again.

1 hour flat.

It was time to go shopping.

She returned a little over an hour later to find the girl sitting up and staring unto nothing.

"Hey how are you feeling? Did you eat yet?"

_No response, huh?_

"That's cool I like it cold… cold and spicy."

The girl wouldn't budge. Nikita rolled her eyes and continued. "So, as promised I got you a few things. I know its not Prada but, cute, right?"

The girl remained still.

_Well I think it's cute._

"Come on the first step to feeling good is looking good and I want my clothes back."

_Quoting the devil herself. I am going to be rotting in a very dark room one day._

Nikita walked over to the nearest vanity desk and put her bag down. Taking out a beautiful light pink blouse she examined it.

_Very cute._

Alex spoke up, surprising Nikita, who had gotten used to the young Russian's silence.

"What are you going to do to me? You don't know me. You don't know anything about me. So what do you want?" Alex's voice broke halfway through and she turned around to glare at her captor.

_Not trying to burn you, kid. I'm trying to help you._

Nikita looked back. There was no malice in her eyes, Alex could see that much, but she was too far in to trust someone she'd never met. This woman didn't need to gain her trust. She had to earn it.

"I know you like _smack_. For me it was ketamine. K all the way."

She sat down. Taking a good look at the girl she shrugged her shoulders.

"What am I going to do to you? I'm going to do what I wish someone had done for me."

Eyebrows furrowing, Alex whipped around and shook her head; rolling her eyes in disbelief.

"You've got me here. Trapped. So why are you lying?" Her voice broke again and she adjusted her position—slowly sinking into herself.

Nikita sighed and ran a hand through her hair.

"When I was high… I did something. Something I went to prison for, something I'm going to be paying for the rest of my life. When I saw you, a saw a chance to stop it from happening again."

Alex shook her head.

"Where?"

"Where what?"

"Where did you see me?"

"I saw you walking into that crack house."

"Why were you there? Somebody like you doesn't just walk by a place like that."

_That's assuming I'm not the kind of person I actually am. Outfits really do shape you._

"Alex…"

"Were you following me?"

"No."

"How do you know my name?"

_More accusations? You really have to stop this or I'll stop giving you the orange veggie shake and drink it myself._

"I heard your dealer say it."

"What's your name?"

_I hate that question._

"It's not a trap. When you are back to full health you're free to go. Forget you ever met me."

She tossed the shirt on the bed only to see Alex push it aside.

She went downstairs, exasperated. This relationship was going to be more than complicated.

_Do I tell her anything? Should I tell her anything? Should I just leave?_

She wanted Alex to trust her. She needed Alex to trust her. But the question truly lay in how would she earn that trust.

She opened a cabinet and took out her blender. It was orange veggie shake time.


End file.
